Lone Star Park Sets 2017 Stakes Schedule
Texas 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale Set for April 4
The 2017 Thoroughbred stakes schedule at Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie will offer 11 stakes worth a combined $1 million in purses, headlined by the $200,000 Texas Mile (G3) on May 4 and the $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap (G3) on May 28. The 50-day meet runs April 20 through July 30. Four Texas-bred stakes make up the Stars of Texas Day card on July 22 with the two $100,000-estimated divisions of the Texas Thoroughbred Sale Futurities at five furlongs; the $50,000 Valor Farm for fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up, at six furlongs; and the $50,000 Assault for 3-year-olds and up at one mile. A pair of $65,000 divisions of the Clarence Scharbauer Jr. Texas Stallion Stakes for 3-year-olds will be run at one mile on May 27. Keeping with tradition, the $50,000 Premiere Stakes will open the meet and kick off the stakes action. The Premiere is for Texas-bred 3-year-olds and up at 6 ½ furlongs. It is the scheduled first race on opening night. The remaining stakes on the schedule are the $50,000 Wayne Hanks Memorial for Texas-bred females, 3-year-olds and up, at 6 ½ furlongs on April 23, and the $50,000 Lane’s End Stallion Scholarship Stakes for Texas-bred females, 3-year-olds and up, on the turf at 7 ½ furlongs on June 24.
The Texas Thoroughbred Association has announced that it will hold its second Texas 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale on April 4 at Lone Star Park. The under tack show will be April 2, also at Lone Star. The TTA, in partnership with Lone Star Park, held its first 2-year-old sale in April 2016, taking over the auction from Fasig-Tipton. That sale posted an average of $18,515 and a buyback rate of 19.7 percent, both significant improvements over the last Fasig-Tipton juvenile sale in 2015. Graduates of the 2017 sale will be eligible for the Texas Thoroughbred Sales Futurity to be run in two divisions at $100,000-estimated apiece at Lone Star. The sale will again be managed by Tim Boyce. The 2016 2-year-old sale has already produced several stakes winners from 53 head sold, highlighted by Bling on the Music, a Texas-bred daughter of Too Much Bling who topped the sale at $95,000. She has recorded two stakes wins and a placing in the Grade 2 Pocahontas Stakes at Keeneland with earnings of $153,082. “The results of our first 2-year-old sale, and our first yearling and mixed sale in August, have shown that Texas and the surrounding region can support a strong auction market for both buyers and sellers,” TTA Executive Director Mary Ruyle said. “With the experience of those auctions and more time to market the 2-year-old sale, we expect to grow both TTA sales in 2017.” For more information, go to ttasales.com.
BROODMARE FOR SALE
Royally-bred 7YO Broodmare in Foal to Top Texas Stallion GAFF
Lady Jacqueline L English Channel – Lady Brook, by Ascot Knight
By ENGLISH CHANNEL (leading sire; 6-time G1 winner, including Breeders’ Cup Turf, with $5.3 million in earnings) out of stakes winner LADY BROOK, by ASCOT KNIGHT In foal to GAFF, a top Texas sire who earned $569,513 and was a graded stakes winner on turf and dirt in the U.S. and a stakes winner and group-placed runner in Ireland. GAFF has 17 winners and nine repeat winners in 2016 from only 26 runners!
Contact Billy Dunn at Fairbrook Stables • Houston, Texas • 281-660-2013 AMERICAN RACEHORSE • WINTER 2017 71